Moving Higher: From Content to Intent

My team keeps track of emerging Ed-tech companies, organizations involved in training, coaching just to follow impact stories. We follow world class mentors, mostly for our own doze of motivation and also  to broaden our horizon of thinking.

We are part of groups in social media channels for ongoing cerebral stimulation in the learning space. As advocates for alternate learning models that is outcome driven, when we come across claims such as these, we often fail to fathom the audacity behind such a statement.

                           

“I have transformed the lives of 20000 people through my programs. I have been awarded A, B and C”

Remember, that introduction is to make you feel privileged that you can attend a seminar conducted by a person of this caliber - for free

Zero Cost. Zilch.

I am not sure about others in my team, but I definitely cringe with such lofty claims.

My thoughts are, if I had really transformed the lives of even 20 people, they would be on stage sharing their stories, not me. 

Techniques can be self taught, inspiration can be sought from a dozen sources but feeling motivated enough to act, requires a lot.

This just happened to rhyme. I did not intend that. If this rhyming assists you to remember the essence, I am not changing a word here.

As a business model – freemium to premium is very popular today. It works well and is quite successful - You attract the crowd with a free workshop, virtual summit, seminar, e-book, pdf download - briefly show them the personal and business outcomes that  they can achieve and then make them sign up to learn the techniques to achieve those outcomes.

The next thing you see is loads of branding everywhere of that free workshop - Images, reactions and bunch of vanity metrics uploaded in a dozen channels. I personally dislike this predictable flow chart so much that I have written many blogs on this to create some stir and awareness about its futility.

Coaching is a trillion dollar industry - It is time for the coaches to be a little more responsible towards outcomes, than the function. That space is not crowded at all as there are hardly anyone willing to explore this isolated zone - sharing the journey with participants for outcomes. We BECKON Coaches call it nesting.

An auditorium with over 250 participants receive free inputs, and how do you expect them the fill the feedback forms and impression books? Isn’t it human nature to be grateful? How many of them will share their honest opinion about scope for improvement?

"Loved it"

"I feel like a different person"

"X is an amazing coach"

"This session has transformed me completely"

"Would love to attend more of these. This is life changing"

Mere words!!

These workshops are useful and a free seminar is definitely a great strategy – just the claim “Transform” “Impact” is far fetched and misleading.

In 2015 I had a client from Arizona, whose core work was limited to do basic electric wiring etc. I was his content strategist.

After attending a session by Bob Proctor, he was so inspired, motivated and filled with purpose to live better, do something of value that he wanted to open an Ed tech company to assist teen entrepreneurs. He moved to one of the Asian countries to work as teacher for a couple of years while building his startup team. He not only found his co-founder and built the company, he went operational last year.

Now whether he is successful  in his business or not is a different story altogether. The point is, just one session with a world class mentor brought this change in a participant’s mindset to take the right decisions and initiatives to think, act, master his mind, his emotions, his dreams and his finances.

If I can afford to pay and attend his mentor's program, I definitely will. Do I need the mentor to use the microphone or brag? I can see the results in a person I meet online. That speaks volumes about the depth of learning the mentor shares.

(As I have not sought permission from the client, I am masking the company’s name)

In the past two years, my focus has been to build a team of coaches who can replicate what I do - self learn or learn something without bothering about certification and translate the new learning to revenue. 

In the process you create mental impact first that soon translates to physical impact.

With the confluence of AI, Robotics, machine learning, this transition point is very critical for most of us to be relevant for new set of jobs that never existed before and be ready for the future. 

The league of coaches that we need today has to be not only forward thinking but be able to focus beyond content download and be great story tellers with monastic belief and clear intent to assist the participant.

If you have an impact story to share with a profile of your mentor, we will be very glad to publish here because that is what we are looking for, learning that is outcome driven where the intent of the mentor reflects in what you do.

If you attended a great session with an awesome mentor and you go back to your work desk next morning to do the very same things, go back to live the same life, that speaks enough about the session and mentor already, regardless of the glowing online reviews. Spare us from that story!!

Is Training Entertainment?

There is a whole crowd out there who definitely think training is fun and prolonged entertainment. Fasten your seat belts and fly to a whole new world with the trainer as your host. They have almost the same temperament that one has while going to a movie hall - anticipation and a little excitement. You do not go to a movie to learn something and come back home and apply it. Do you?

That is exactly the point. After training, there is responsibility (shared) and accountability (individual).  The training hours are not your escape route, your break from mundane and routine. It is cost, loss of revenue and you have to translate that learning to achieve outcomes and impact revenue. 

Passenger state of mind

Would you blame the passenger for being so casual about training? If the learning strategy of an organization has no measurement model around training effectiveness, why do they need to know the difference? Let your mind wander till the Learning lead learns to work out something to measure what you really learnt.

Prisoner state of mind

Many attend training out of compulsion. It could be to build their credibility, to be able to negotiate better ratings during appraisal or to add a feather as initiative and use that as a missile during promotion assessment or engaging top talent in any assignment overseas. This prisoner is locked in "What Is In For Me" syndrome

Participatory state of mind

A small percentage is definitely there who genuinely want to learn and will gladly participate, however they are not really concerned about the immediate changes they can do in the work place. How his resume will look after that certification and how can he market it better is his primary interest.

Personal state of mind

It is the participant's personal state of mind, his urge to learn and make a difference that counts most. Are your modules designed to even remotely stir that layer of his mind, to motivate him to change?

As I type "motivate" the trainer is probably searching for that canned module - How to stay motivated - to include it in her workshop calendar. It is not learning team's priority that works, it is the learner's and the surest way to have him captivated is to let him know what Business is expecting him to do after the training. He knows the outcomes he is supposed to deliver, he automatically knows what to focus on and  how much during the training.